About Kortney

I know what it’s like to have your life fall apart and have to build it back from scratch.

Not the kind of falling apart you can see coming.

The kind that blindsides you — that takes the life you spent years carefully constructing and leaves you standing in the rubble wondering who you even are now.

I’ve been there. And what I found on the other side changed everything — not just for me, but for every woman I’ve worked with since.

If you’re in a season of transition, burnout, or quiet desperation — wondering what happened to the woman you used to be, or trying to figure out who you’re becoming — you’re in the right place.

You feel disconnected from your energy, your rhythm, maybe even yourself… and you’re starting to wonder: what’s really going on, and how do I get back to feeling like me again.

I haven't always been a coach.

My first career was about as far from this work as you can get. I graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in Aerospace Engineering and went to work at Boeing in Seattle, where I spent time on the 777-300 flight test program — which meant occasionally experiencing wing-flex maneuvers in a massive commercial aircraft (yes, that’s as wild as it sounds) and, once, getting struck by lightning mid-flight. I was never bored. But I also never felt like I was where I was supposed to be.

The corporate cubicle and I were not a match.

But that was the least of what I was carrying.

The thing I didn't talk about for years...

Long before the engineering degree and the Boeing badge, I was a girl who didn’t feel comfortable in her own body.

I was tall — taller than most of the boys until high school — and I spent years feeling too big, too much, too visible in all the wrong ways. That discomfort with my body led me somewhere painful: an eating disorder that started in junior high and followed me well into adulthood. For years, my relationship with food and exercise was wrapped up in control, punishment, and a deep belief that my body needed to be different than it was.

I share this not for sympathy, but because I know how many women carry a version of this story quietly into their 40s and beyond. The body shame. The all-or-nothing relationship with food. The feeling that your body is something to be managed rather than lived in. I know it from the inside — and it’s a big part of why I do this work the way I do.

It took years, but I found my way to a different relationship with my body. Running was part of it. Triathlons were part of it — I eventually completed several half-Ironman events, and the experience of training my body to perform rather than just look a certain way was genuinely transformational. Food became fuel. Movement became joy. The finish line became something to run toward, not away from.

But the real work — the deepest work, came later.

The curveball that changed everything...

In 2014, I discovered my husband was gay.

After 17 years of marriage and two children, the life I had built came apart almost overnight. I was devastated. Blindsided. And suddenly, completely on my own in ways I hadn’t been since before I was an adult.

What followed was one of the most painful and ultimately most important seasons of my life. I had to rebuild — not just my external circumstances, but everything inside. I had to grieve the loss of the life I thought I had. I had to unlearn the version of myself I’d become in the context of that marriage.

I had to reconnect with who I actually was, what I actually wanted, and what kind of life I was capable of building on my own terms.

I had to reconnect with who I actually was, what I actually wanted, and what kind of life I was capable of building on my own terms.

This is when I truly understood the three pillars — not as a framework, but as a lived experience.

It wasn’t enough to take care of my body. I had to take care of my mind: the anxiety, the stories I was telling myself, the patterns I kept repeating. And I had to take care of my spirit: the identity questions, the values work, the terrifying and necessary process of asking who am I now, and what do I actually want?

No workout plan was going to get me there. No nutrition protocol was going to fix it. I needed all three, and I needed a guide. I hired a coach to help me find direction, and that decision changed the entire trajectory of my life. Within a few years, I had made the shift: I was going to do for other women what my coach had done for me.

From aerospace engineer to coach.

Here’s what my path taught me:

The women who need this work most are often the most capable ones

They’re the ones who have already done hard things. They’ve built careers, raised families, survived curveballs, pushed through when everything in them said stop.

They don’t need someone to tell them to try harder.

They need someone who can help them figure out what they’re actually trying to build, and hold the whole picture while they find their footing.

That’s me.

This is what I do.

What I bring to this work

I’m a certified mental health coach (I currently support 30 clients a week through Lyra Health), a Precision Nutrition Level 2 Master Coach, and an ACE-certified personal trainer. I also have certifications as a Women’s Coaching Specialist and Menopause Coaching Specialist through Girls Gone Strong. I host Real, Brave & Unstoppable, a podcast with over 147 episodes and over 10,000 downloads built specifically for the conversations women in their 40s and 50s need to be having.

That combination is unusual, and it’s intentional.

Most coaches work in one lane.

A therapist works your mind. A nutritionist works your food. A trainer works your body. I work all three, because I’ve learned, both from my own life and from years of professional practice, that you can’t sustainably change one without addressing the others.

Mind:

Stress, emotional patterns, mental health, and the root causes of burnout — not just the symptoms. I bring real clinical training to this work, not just mindset coaching.

Body:

Movement, strength, and nutrition calibrated for the body you have right now — including how it’s changing in your 40s and 50s. My Precision Nutrition credential means we go deep on how food and exercise affect your energy, mood, and hormones, not just your weight.

Spirit:

Identity, values, purpose, and the question underneath everything: Who am I now, and what do I actually want? This is the piece most coaches skip entirely. It’s also the piece that makes everything else possible.

The adventure...

A few things you might want to know about me:

I have my private pilot’s license. (Yes, really.)

I’m a former aerospace engineer who worked on the Boeing 777-300 flight test program. I have some crazy stories, including the day we got struck by lightning as we were landing at Boeing Field.

I used to brew my own beer and spent five years as a craft beer sales rep. I once owned a horse named Indy and competed in hunter/jumpers. My first horse, Sydney, was a stopper. He once spooked at a jump, threw me off, and I tore my calf muscle (which, in a very roundabout way, led me to triathlons. Sometimes the injury is the gift, I guess?).

I’ve completed multiple half-Ironman events. I’m a photographer. My happy place is a mountain trail or a SUP on still water.

I share these not because they’re impressive, but because they’re true to who I am and they’re relevant to how I coach.

I believe that women in their 40s and 50s are not in the wind-down chapter of their lives. I believe this season is one of the most expansive, most alive, most full-of-possibility chapters there is — if you have the right support to meet it. The adventures I’ve had — and the ones still ahead — are part of how I know that.

I was born and raised in Minnesota (“ya sure ya betcha”) and currently live in Maryland, near Washington, DC. I have two kids. My favorite meal is a toss-up between homemade Neapolitan pizza and smoked brisket.

And I am genuinely, unreservedly here for whatever chapter you’re stepping into next. .

If something brought you here, it's worth paying attention to.

Women don’t usually find their way to this page by accident.

Something shifted — a transition, a moment of clarity, a season that finally got loud enough to listen to.
Whatever it was, it brought you here.

I’d love to talk.

Not a sales pitch. Not a discovery call designed to pressure you into a decision. Just a conversation — about where you are, where you want to go, and whether working together makes sense.

The woman you’re becoming is already out there.
Real, brave, and unstoppable.

Let’s go find her.

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